Wayward Witch Zoraida Córdova

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Also by Zoraida Córdova
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Books. Change. Lives.

Copyright © 2020 by Zoraida Córdova
Cover and internal design © 2020 by Sourcebooks
Cover design by Nicole Hower/Sourcebooks
Map illustration by Cat Scully
Cover images © SpringNymph/Getty Images; kotoffei/Getty Images;
MarinaVorontsova/Getty Images
Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of
Sourcebooks.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any
form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information
storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations
embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing
from its publisher, Sourcebooks.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are
used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is
purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
Published by Sourcebooks Fire, an imprint of Sourcebooks
P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410
(630) 961-3900
www.sourcebooks.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Córdova, Zoraida, author.
Title: Wayward witch / Zoraida Córdova.
Description: Naperville, Illinois : Sourcebooks Fire, [2020] | Series:
Brooklyn Brujas ; 3 | Audience: Ages 14-18. | Audience: Grades 10-
12. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2019059979 | (hardcover) | (trade paperback)
Subjects: CYAC: Magic--Fiction. | Witches--Fiction. |
Supernatural--Fiction. | Families--Fiction. | Hispanic
Americans--Fiction. | Bisexuality--Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.C8153573 Wc 2020 | DDC [Fic]--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019059979
 Contents

Front Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Map

Part I

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Part II

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8
 Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Part III

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Part IV

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Part V

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25
 Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Epilogue

Author’s Note

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Back Cover
 For immigrants.
We get the job done!
 Part I
The Deathday
 1

Claribelle was lost in the forest.

She stepped between two ceiba trees
under the light of the full moon.
A door opened and she walked through it.

—Claribelle and the Kingdom of Adas: Tales Tall and True, Gloriana
Palacios

I’m supposed to be the good one. The bruja who studies dusty
tomes and respects her magical lineage. The sister who doesn’t trap
her family in another dimension or raise an army of heart-chomping
zombies. The daughter who doesn’t talk back, flosses twice a day,
cleans her altar without being told to, takes out the trash, and
recites rezos to the gods before going to bed at midnight. If I were
the good one, I wouldn’t be hiding today of all days.
It is, after all, my Deathday and my birthday combined, and like
the average fifteen-year-old bruja, I’m spending the party in a
hallway pantry, sitting on a crate of Goya beans, with my dress
pockets full of chocolate candy bars. A low-hanging light bulb casts a
white glow over the open storybook on my lap.
“Have you seen Rose?” My mother asks someone from the other
side of the door.
 I don’t know who she’s talking to, but they make a noncommittal
sound. Ma shouts my name, and I freeze mid-page-turn. After the
ceremony, I said I’d go change into party clothes and be right back,
and I had every intention of doing so. Mostly. But I started imagining
all those people—friends, family, and strangers—wanting to talk to
me. To look at me. To wonder why, after fifteen years of being an
ordinary bruja I am suddenly so interesting. That’s the word people
keep using, at least. Since I don’t have an answer, I decided to put
myself in time-out.
When my mom gives up and the hammering tap of heels dissolves
into echoes, I breathe a little easier. I flip to my bookmark and sigh.
I’ll read one more chapter and then go. I know. I know I can’t stay
in here forever.
If you ask me, and no one ever does, it’s too soon to celebrate my
freakish new abilities. I mean, one minute, I was a seer, speaking to
ghosts and the world beyond the Veil of the living. Now I’m
something completely different that no one in my family, our
network of brujas, or supernatural allies have ever heard of. There
isn’t even a name for it since I’ve forbidden everyone from calling
me a “magical hacker.” It’s a miracle our lives haven’t been
threatened for a whole six months, so I haven’t had to put my power
to the test. Honestly, I’m not so sure my family even wants me to
try.
Lula told me to enjoy the moments we get to be normal and
danger free, but there’s no “normal” when you’re a bruja. Unlike the
rest of the Mortiz family, I can’t pretend like the last year and half
hasn’t been filled with monsters and blood and guts and secret
societies and more resurrections than I am personally comfortable
with. We’ve just accepted Dad’s magical memory loss from the years
he was gone. Alex is all One with the Force after she accidentally
banished us to Los Lagos. Lula unleashed dead hordes across the
city, but no worries, she’s back to her old self again. Ma finally has
her family whole and together.
I’m the only one who seems to notice that there is something
wrong around here, but every time I work up the nerve to speak, I
convince myself that it’s all in my head. Things are peaceful. Things
are fine.
Aren’t they?
Sandals slap against the tiled hallway floor. I recognize the cadence
of her walk instantly. I hold in a sneeze brought on by pantry dust as
my eldest sister starts yelling for me.
“Rose Elizabeta Mortiz, get your bedazzled butt out here and
dance!” Lula manages to walk right past my hiding spot.
I sneeze, and a handful of pink and white petals fall between the
pages of my book. The flowers in my ceremonial crown are already
wilting. So much for fresh carnations. I’ve tried to undo the braid
Lula and Alex artfully twisted around my head with gold twine, but
they used so much hairspray and so many bobby pins that I only
managed to yank a few strands out by the root. I blow on the
petals. They scatter on the blush-pink tulle skirt of my dress, stuffed
around my feet.
The door opens, letting in the bright kitchen light and the rhythmic
tap of drums from the living room.
Lula purses her lips. There’s a flash of relief in her gray eyes before
she shouts, “Found her!”
Alex pokes her head around Lula’s body. Her brown hair is in a
braided ballerina bun, decorated with a glittering crescent moon. “I
told you she wouldn’t have been in the garage. That’s where all the
old folks are playing cards.”
 “I have to say, I’m disappointed in your hide-and-seek skills.” I turn
the page of my book and clear my throat, hoping they’ll take the
hint and go away. “Good thing neither of you are going into search
and rescue for a living.”
“Um, rude,” Lula says, dusting her bare shoulder, but the pantry
dust only mixes with her body glitter. When she leans into the light,
the four claw marks that scar my sister’s face are iridescent as pearl.
Over the summer, she started accentuating them with colorful eye
shadow because she says people stare anyway, so she might as well
get creative. “There are too many rooms in this house. I keep
confusing the guest bathroom for the guest closet, which is not a fun
surprise when there are a hundred people in the house and no one
locks the door.”
“And yet”—I slam my book shut—“you managed to find me in the
only place I’ve been able to find some peace and quiet since the
ceremony finished.”
My sisters ignore me and shove their way in, party dresses and all.
I groan in protest when one of them steps on my foot and another
one jams an elbow in my ribs as they squeeze on either side of me
and close the door.
“Come on, Rosie!” Lula says. “You’re missing out. Tía Panchita says
she’s dancing with a ghost but really she’s had six cups of Tío Julio’s
coquito.”
If I were still connected to the Veil I could debunk her theory.
Instead, I ask, “Are you sure you haven’t had six cups of Tío Julio’s
coquito? Or is a certain thirsty hunter here?”
She elbows me, and in an attempt to move away, I slam into Alex,
who bumps into the supplies stacked on the shelves that surround
us. The jars wobble precariously, and a dozen of them tip forward. I
shield my face from the impact, but Alex thrusts her hands up,
conjuring a gust of wind. The chilly air funnels around us, and the
force of her magic sets every jar of spices and bird bones back into
place. When our arms brush against each other, I jump at the
electric charge of her lingering power.
Alex dusts her palms, and even in the dim light, her smug grin is
unmistakable. It’s a welcome change to the days when she rejected
anything that had to do with being a bruja. But now she’s just
showing off.
“Okay,” Alex says, “Why are you reading a book you’ve already
read a thousand times instead of enjoying your Deathday after-
party?”
As if on cue, a chorus of laughter filters from the living room,
followed by the scaling notes of a saxophone. I don’t know why my
parents insisted on hiring a real live salsa band to perform when the
only salsa I like is the chunky and spicy kind I can scoop up with
tortilla chips.
“Excuse you,” I say, frowning, “but if I remember correctly you
didn’t even want to have a Deathday, and we all know how that
turned out.”
“Rosie…” Alex says, the smugness completely gone. “You know I’m
sorry.”
Lula’s brows shoot up, her gray eyes darting between Alex and me.
Frustration knots in my throat. I know Alex regrets what she did.
Despite being the only encantrix in her generation, she is still a
cautionary tale brujas tell their children at night. How was she
supposed to know her canto would backfire? How could she have
known that her family was so intrinsically tied to her magic that
removing it would have been like trying to carve out an organ with a
butter knife? When Alex tried to cast her powers away, she changed
everything. Sometimes I want to blame her. If not for Alex, Lula
would have never tried to resurrect the dead. We wouldn’t have had
to fight for our lives and watch our home burn down and had to
move to Nowhere, Queens. I would still be a seer. Then again, if not
for Alex, we wouldn’t have Nova in our lives or Dad back.
In my heart, I know that if we were the kind of family that
verbalized our feelings, things might be different. But we bottle our
fears and sadness and sometimes even our joy. I know I’m no
different.
“I get it, you’re sorry. Look,” I say. I wish I was better at trying to
untangle my emotions because I don’t want to hurt my sister, either.
“All I’m asking for is an hour by myself. Conjuring dozens of
ancestral spirits doesn’t exactly make me want to get on the dance
floor and mambo.”
“What about perreo?” Lula muses, followed by Alex flicking the
bare skin of Lula’s arm.
“I’d rather not see a bunch of old brujas dirty dancing,” Alex
mutters. She nudges my shoulder playfully like we’re in on this
together. “I could tell you stories about Agosto that aren’t in this
book.”
“In the living room,” Lula offers brightly.
And Alex adds, “While we eat cake.”
“I don’t want your stories of Los Lagos,” I say, perhaps a little more
roughly than I meant to. I will always be a teeny tiny bit jealous that
Alex got to meet Agosto the Faun King in real life. Then I remember
that while she was running around Los Lagos, I was inside a ball of
energy waiting to get served up for dinner to an old hag. I tell
myself that Alex came through. She saved us. We saved her too.
“It’s just—I want my own, that’s all.”
Lula wraps her arm around my shoulder. She isn’t using her healing
magic on me—not exactly. She has a different kind of power that
usually calms me just by being near. The times I was holed up in
bed because the spirits whispering in my ear were too loud, Lula was
at my side, singing and brushing my hair to distract me. On the day
I found out I had to switch schools because we moved here, she
bought me a tray of cupcakes and didn’t even have one for herself. I
can think of a thousand more ways Lula is my rock. But I don’t want
that today.
“Rosie, come on,” she says. “I know being the center of attention
isn’t the most fun—”
Alex scrunches up her face and holds out her hand like she’s ready
to catch the lie in Lula’s words. “But you love being the center of
attention so…”
“This is true,” Lula admits, tapping a red nail against her chin.
“We’re still talking about a once-in-a-lifetime rite of passage. Like
sinmago parties. You had fun at Claudia Toloza’s quinceañera.”
“And you danced all night at Rishi’s sweet sixteen,” Alex chimes.
I grumble. “That’s different.”
“If I could do my Deathday over—” Alex starts to say, and that’s
when everything I feel tips over.
“First of all, I don’t need your philosophizing on the mistakes you
made and what you’d do over again,” I tell her. “I’m not you.”
Lula and Alex stare at each other and share a look only older
sisters can, like I’m acting petulant and unreasonable. But they don’t
see things the way I do. The frustration of it all makes me want to
scratch at the itch beneath my skin, the one that started ever since
my new magic appeared, but when I did that last night, I just
clawed my arms raw.
“Rose—” Lula starts.
“No, I need you guys to listen to me. Please,” I beg.
 My sisters nod and remain quiet for a whole minute. Call the
Guinness Book of World Records.
I take a breath and say, “Ever since I was little, all I wanted was to
be like you guys. I never noticed that we weren’t like other families
because you never made me feel strange. We are who we are. But
lately, it’s like you’re all trying to make us something we’re not.”
“What do you mean?” Alex asks, her voice deep with worry.
“I mean me. You don’t know what it’s like to be me right now. You
don’t see what I see.”
They’re quiet again. They scratch their scalps and shift in their
glittering party dresses and sigh like they’re trying to understand but
there is something missing.
Lula brushes my stray baby hairs. “We can do more research into
your power, Rosie. I can ask the Alliance to try new sources—”
I let go of a long grunt. “No. I mean, it’s weird having this new
magic and I’d like to find out more about it, but it’s not just that.”
“Then what?” Alex asks, her brown eyes cast in long shadows from
above. “Talk to us.”
How am I supposed to know what to say? I know the ingredients
that will conjure luck and I can brew a potion to talk to the dead,
but no one ever taught me how to speak a truth that is
uncomfortable.
I take a deep breath, trying to figure out how to explain what I’m
feeling. My sisters are pretending everything is square, just like our
parents. It’s like we got to the end of the storybook and everyone
has their happily-ever-afters. Our dad is back after having vanished
without a trace for over seven years. Alex claimed her magic. Lula
put the dead back to rest.
But am I the only one who notices the way Dad stares into space
like he’s forgotten where he is? I’ve woken in the middle of the night
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
Saltpeter, or niter, is a compound of this metal (or rather its oxide)
with nitric acid. It is one of the ingredients of gunpowder, and has the
property of quickening the combustion of all combustible bodies.
Mix some chlorate of potash with lump sugar, both being powdered,
and drop on the mixture a little strong sulphuric acid, and it will
instantly burst into flame. This experiment also requires caution.
Want of space precludes us from considering the individual metals
and their compounds in detail; it must suffice to describe some
experiments showing some of their properties.
The different affinities of the metals for oxygen may be exhibited in
various ways. The silver or zinc tree has already been described.

Experiments.
1. Into a solution of nitrate of silver in distilled water immerse a clean
plate or slip of copper. The solution, which was colorless, will soon
begin to assume a greenish tint, and the piece of copper will be
covered with a coating of a light gray color, which is the silver
formerly united to the nitric acid, which has been displaced by the
greater affinity or liking of the oxygen and acid for the copper.
2. When the copper is no longer coated, but remains clean and
bright when immersed in the fluid, all the silver has been deposited,
and the glass now contains a solution of copper.
Place a piece of clean iron in the solution, and it will almost instantly
be coated with a film of copper, and this will continue until the whole
of that metal is removed, and its place filled by an equivalent quantity
of iron, so that the nitrate of iron is found in the liquid. The oxygen
and nitric acid remain unaltered in quantity or quality during these
changes, being merely transferred from one metal to another.
A piece of zinc will displace the iron in like manner, leaving a solution
of nitrate of zinc.
Nearly all the colors used in the arts are produced by metals and
their combinations; indeed, one is named chromium, from a Greek
word signifying color, on account of the beautiful tints obtained from
its various combinations with oxygen and the other metals. All the
various tints of green, orange, yellow, and red, are obtained from this
metal.
Solutions of most of the metallic salts give precipitates with solutions
of alkalies and their salts, as well as with many other substances,
such as what are usually called prussiate of potash, hydro-sulphuret
of ammonia, etc.; and the colors differ according to the metal
employed, and so small a quantity is required to produce the color
that the solutions before mixing may be nearly colorless.

Experiments.
1. To a solution of sulphate of iron add a drop or two of a solution of
prussiate of potash, and a blue color will be produced.
2. Substitute sulphate of copper for iron, and the color will be a rich
brown.
3. Another blue, of quite a different tint, may be produced by letting a
few drops or a solution of ammonia fall into one of sulphate of
copper—a precipitate of a light blue falls down, which is dissolved by
an additional quantity of the ammonia, and forms a transparent
solution of the most splendid rich blue color.
4. Into a solution of sulphate of iron let fall a few drops of a strong
infusion of galls, and the color will become a bluish-black—in fact,
ink. A little tea will answer as well as the infusion of galls. This is the
reason why certain stuffs formerly in general use for dressing-gowns
for gentlemen were so objectionable; for as they were indebted to a
salt of iron for their color, buff as it was called, a drop of tea
accidentally spilt produced all the effect of a drop of ink.
5. Put into a largish test tube two or three small pieces of granulated
zinc, fill it about one-third full of water, put in a few grains of iodine
and boil the water, which will at first acquire a dark purple color,
gradually fading as the iodine combines with the zinc. Add a little
more iodine from time to time, until the zinc is nearly all dissolved. If
a few drops of this solution be added to an equally colorless solution
of corrosive sublimate (a salt of mercury) a precipitate will take place
of a splendid scarlet color, brighter if possible than vermilion, which
is also a preparation of mercury.

Crystallization of Metals.
Some of the metals assume certain definite forms in returning from
the fluid to the solid state. Bismuth shows this property more readily
than most others.

Experiment.
Melt a pound or two of bismuth in an iron ladle over the fire; remove
it as soon as the whole is fluid; and when the surface has become
solid break a hole in it, and pour out the still fluid metal from the
interior; what remains will exhibit beautifully-formed crystals of a
cubic shape.
Sulphur may be crystallized in the same manner, but its fumes, when
heated, are so very unpleasant that few would wish to encounter
them.
One of the most remarkable facts in chemistry, a science abounding
in wonders, is the circumstance, that the mere contact of hydrogen,
the lightest body known, with the metal platinum, the heaviest, when
in a state of minute division, called spongy platinum, produces an
intense heat, sufficient to inflame the hydrogen; of course this
experiment must be made in the presence of atmospheric air or
oxygen.
Time and space (or rather the want of them) compel us to conclude
with a few experiments of a miscellaneous character.

To Form a Solid From Two Liquids.

Prepare separately, saturated solutions of sulphate of magnesia
(Epsom salts) and carbonate of potash. On mixing them the result
will be nearly solid.
Solutions of muriate of lime and carbonate of potash will answer as
well.
 To Form a Liquid From Two Solids.
Rub together in a Wedgewood mortar a small quantity of sulphate of
soda and acetate of lead, and as they mix they will become liquid.
Carbonate of ammonia and sulphate of copper, previously reduced
to powder separately, will also, when mixed, become liquid, and
acquire a most splendid blue color.
The greater number of salts have a tendency to assume regular
forms, or become crystallized, when passing from the fluid to the
solid state; and the size and regularity of the crystals depend in a
great measure on the slow or rapid escape of the fluid in which they
were dissolved. Sugar is a capital example of this property; the
ordinary loaf-sugar being rapidly boiled down, as it is called: while to
make sugar-candy, which is nothing but sugar in a crystallized form,
the solution is allowed to evaporate slowly, and as it cools it forms
into those beautiful crystals termed sugar-candy. The threads found
in the center of some of the crystals are merely placed for the
purpose of hastening the formation of the crystals.

Experiments.
1. Make a strong solution of alum, or of sulphate of copper, or blue
vitriol, and place in them rough and irregular pieces of clinker from
stoves, or wire-baskets, and set them by in a cool place, where they
will be free from dust, and in a few days crystals of the several salts
will deposit themselves on the baskets, etc.; they should then be
taken out of the solutions, and dried, when they form very pretty
ornaments for a room.
2. Fill a Florence flask up to the neck with a strong solution of
sulphate of soda, or Glauber’s salt, boil it, and tie the mouth over
with a piece of moistened bladder while boiling, and set it by in a
place where it cannot be disturbed. After twenty-four hours it will
probably still remain fluid. Pierce the bladder covering with a
penknife, and the entrance of the air will cause the whole mass
instantly to crystallize, and the flask will become quite warm from the
latent caloric, of which we have spoken before, given out by the salt
in passing from the fluid to the solid state. It is better to prepare two
or three flasks at the same time, to provide against accidents, for the
least shake will often cause crystallization to take place before the
proper time.

Changes of Color Produced by Colorless Liquids.

Make a strong infusion of the leaves of the red cabbage, which will
be of a beautiful blue color; drop into it a few drops of dilute sulphuric
acid, and the color will change to a bright red; add some solution of
carbonate of potash, or soda, and the red color will gradually give
way to the original blue; continue adding the alkaline solution, and
the fluid will assume a bright green color. Now resume the acid, and
as it is dropped in, the color will again change from green to blue,
and from blue to red. Now this simple experiment illustrates three
points: first, that acids change the color of most vegetable blues and
greens to red; second, that alkalies change most blues and reds to
green; and third, that when the acid and alkali are united together,
they both lose their property of changing color, and become what is
called a neutral salt, i.e. a compound possessing the properties of
neither of its constituents.
 ACOUSTICS.
Acoustics is the science relating to sound and hearing. Sound is
heard when any shock or impulse is given to the air, or to any other
body which is in contact directly or indirectly with the ear.

Difference Between Sound and Noise.

Noises are made by the crack of whips, the beating of hammers, the
creak of a file or saw, or the hubbub of a multitude. But when a bell is
struck, the bow of a violin drawn across the strings, or the wetted
finger turned round a musical glass, we have what are properly
called sounds.

Sounds, How Propagated.

Sounds are propagated on all bodies much after the manner that
waves are in water, with a velocity of 1,142 feet in a second. Sounds
in liquids and in solids are more rapid than in air. Two stones rubbed
together may be heard in water at half a mile; solid bodies convey
sounds to great distances, and pipes may be made to convey the
voice over every part of the house.

To Show How Sound Travels Through a Solid.

Take a long piece of wood, such as the handle of a hair broom, and
placing a watch at one end, apply your ear to the other, and the
tickings will be distinctly heard.

To Show That Sound Depends on Vibration.

Touch a bell when it is sounding, and the noise ceases; the same
may be done to a musical string with the same results. Hold a
musical pitch-fork to the lips, when it is made to sound, and a
quivering motion will be felt from its vibrations. These experiments
show that sound is produced by the quick motions and vibrations of
different bodies.

Musical Figures Resulting From Sound.

Cover the mouth of a wine-glass, having a foot-stalk, with a thin
sheet of membrane, over which scatter a layer of fine sand. The
vibrations excited in the air by the sound of a musical instrument,
held within a few inches of the membrane, will cause the sand on its
surface to form regular lines and figures with astonishing celerity,
which vary with the sound produced.

To Make an Æolian Harp.

This instrument consists of a long, narrow box of very thin deal,
about six inches deep, with a circle in the middle of the upper side of
an inch and a half in diameter, in which are to be drilled small holes.
On this side seven, ten or more strings of very fine catgut are
stretched over bridges at each end, like the bridges of a fiddle, and
screwed up or relaxed with screw-pins. The strings must all be tuned
to one and the same note, and the instrument should be placed in a
window partly open, in which the width is exactly equal to the length
of the harp, with the sash just raised to give the air admission. When
the air blows upon these strings with different degrees of force, it will
excite different tones of sound. Sometimes the blast brings out all
the tones in full concert, and sometimes it sinks them to the softest
murmurs.
A colossal imitation of the instrument just described was invented at
Milan in 1786 by the Abbate Gattoni. He stretched seven strong iron
wires, tuned to the notes of the gamut, from the top of a tower sixty
feet high, to the house of a Signor Moscate, who was interested in
the success of the experiment; and this apparatus, called the “giant’s
harp,” in blowing weather yielded lengthened peals of harmonious
music. In a storm this music was heard at a greater distance.
 FIREWORKS.
We know full well the intense delight taken by boys in risking their
limbs or their lives, especially when such risk is accompanied with
noise. Boys always have done so, and always will do so in spite of
the very best of advice or precautions. As, therefore, it is impossible
to keep them from making noises, and endangering themselves, we
have, in this article, endeavored to show them how to make as much
noise as possible, with as little danger as possible.
What is there that makes the most noise, and is most dangerous?
Gunpowder, of course. Therefore, we have given descriptions of the
best methods of employing this material, feeling quite sure that of
accidents with gunpowder nine out of every ten are caused by
ignorance. We knew a boy who lost the use of a thumb, and took all
the skin off the palm of his right hand, by ignorant management of
powder. He had read of blasting rocks, and nothing would satisfy him
but blasting a bank. So he bored a deep hole in it with a stick, filled
the hole with gunpowder, and then poked a lighted lucifer into the
powder. The consequence was that his face was so scorched as not
to be recognized, all his eyebrows and eyelashes, and most of his
hair were burned off, while his right hand was injured, as has been
already mentioned. Now that boy had been studiously kept out of the
way of powder by female relatives, and was naturally profoundly
ignorant of its effects. Had he been taught to handle it, he would not
now be forced to keep his right hand closed, or to write by holding
the pen between the fingers of his clenched hand.

Gunpowder.
It will not be very advisable for the firework boy to make his own
powder, but still it will not be amiss that he should know how it is
prepared. Pulverize separately 5 drams of nitrate of potass, 1 dram
of sulphur, and 1 dram of newly-burnt charcoal; mix them together in
a mortar, with a little water, so as to make the compound into a
dough, which roll out into round pieces of the thickness of a pin upon
a slab. This must be done by moving a board backwards and
forwards until the dough is of a proper size. When three or four of
these pieces are ready put them together, and cut them off into small
grains. Place these grains on a sheet of paper, in a warm place,
where they will soon dry, but away from a fire. During granulation the
dough must be prevented from sticking by using a little of the dry
compound powder. This mode of granulation, though tedious, is the
only one to be used for so small a quantity for the sake of
experiment. In making powder in a large way it is granulated by
passing the composition through sieves.

How to Make Touch-Paper.

Dissolve in a little spirits of wine or vinegar a little saltpeter, then take
some purple or blue paper, and wet it with the above liquor, and it will
be fit for use. When pasting paper on any of the following works take
care that the paste does not touch that part which is to burn. The
method of using this paper is to cut it into slips long enough to go
once round the mouth of a serpent, cracker, etc.

Cases for Squibs, Flower-Pots, Rockets, Roman

Candles, Etc.
Procure a hard wooden cylinder, or, if possible, one made of metal,
whose diameter corresponds with that of the interior of the proposed
case. Roll round it several folds of cartridge paper, and paste the
edges well, so that it may be held securely. Tie it round until dry.

To Choke the Cases.

When the cases are thus made they will require to be tied at the
lower end. This is called choking them, and as much force is
required it is necessary. Fix a wire into a small solid cylinder. Take
another short piece, an inch or two long, with a hole up it to admit the
other end of the wire, fit it on, and pass it up the case. Then having
fastened a piece of whip-cord to a post, wind it round the part left
hollow by the wire, which should be about half an inch from the end;
pull it tight with the right hand, and work the case round with the left.
Cut out a piece of touch paper two inches long, and an inch and a
half broad, wind it round the choke, and tie it on with a piece of fine
string—twist it to a point. The cases are best choked while damp.

Composition for Squibs, Etc.

Gunpowder, half a pound; charcoal, 1 ounce; brimstone, 1 ounce, or
in like proportion; grind them in a muller or pound them in a mortar.
Or you may take 1 part steel filings, 1 charcoal, 1 sulphur, and 4
powder, which is a very good mixture, and can be rubbed together in
a mortar.

How to Fill the Cases.

Your cases must be very dry when ready, and should be put into an
iron or wooden mold; first put in a thimble full of your powder, and
ram it down very hard with your ruler, then put in a little more till the
case is full, ramming it down hard every time. If you have no mold,
hold the case in your left hand with the twisted touch-paper
downwards, and fill it after the same manner. When you have filled
within an inch of the top, fill up this with loose powder not rammed,
for a bang, and fold in the ends; after filling a dozen or two melt
some pitch in a small ladle, and smear the end of the case with it by
means of a small brush.

To Make Crackers.
Cut some stout cartridge-paper into pieces three inches and a half
broad and one foot long, fold down one edge of these pieces
lengthwise about three-quarters of an inch broad, then fold the
double edge down a quarter of an inch, and turn the single edge
back half over the double fold. Open it, and lay all along the channel
which is formed by the folding of the paper some meal powder, then
fold it over and over till the paper is doubled up, rubbing it down at
every turn; this being done bend it backwards and forwards two
inches and a half, or thereabouts, at a time, as often as the paper
will allow. Hold all these folds flat and close, and with a small
pinching cord give one turn round the middle of the cracker and
pinch it close; bind it with pack thread as tight as you can, then in the
place where it was pinched prime one end and cap it with touch-
paper.
When these crackers are fired they will give a loud report at every
turn of the paper: if you want a great number of these, you have only
to cut the paper longer, or join it on to a greater length; but if they are
made very long you must have a piece of wood with a groove in it
deep enough to let in half the cracker, which will hold it straight while
you are pinching it.

Roman Candles and Stars.

These are best made with the following ingredients: 1 ounce of
powder, 1 ounce of sulphur, and 2 ounces of niter. Some persons,
however, prefer 1 part sulphur, 1 charcoal, 1 iron filings, 4 of powder,
and 8 of niter. The composition being made, in filling the cases fill the
contrary way to a squib—stop up the choke by driving down a piece
of paper. Put in 1 quill of gunpowder loose and 1 star made in the
following manner: 1 ounce of camphor, 1 of sulphur, 2 of meal
powder, 1 ounce of the colored fires, moisten them with oil of
turpentine, and work them into little round balls. Having placed a star
within the case, put in above it 3 quills of the composition, ram down,
then powder, star, and composition alternately, till the case is full.
Paste touch-paper round the top and twist to a point.

Rockets.
There are several recipes for making rockets, the best of which is 3
ounces of charcoal, 6 of sulphur, 8 of niter, 32 of meal powder.
Another very good one is, 3 ounces of iron filings, 4 of powdered
charcoal, 8 of sulphur, 16 of niter, and 64 of meal powder. If a
smaller quantity is wanted divide each proportion by 2, if a still
smaller divide by 4.
 Rains.
Sometimes gold or silver rains are added to rockets, which give them
a very beautiful appearance. A gold rain is made of 2 parts sawdust,
4 sulphur, 4 meal powder, 6 glass dust, 16 niter, in all 32 parts. A
silver rain may be made of 2 parts salt prunella, 8 sulphuret of
antimony, 8 sulphur, 8 meal powder, and 14 niter, in all 32 parts.

Catherine Wheels.
These are very pretty fireworks, and are made to turn on a pivot.
There are many recipes for the composition of which they are
formed; 1 part camphor, 1 sulphur, 1 niter, 2 meal powder. Another
is, 3 parts iron filings, 4 sulphur, 12 niter, 16 meal powder. This
composition is to be rammed into small cases, and bound round a
small wheel having a hole for a pivot in the center.

Various Colored Fires.

The following recipes will give the young firework maker a great
variety of the most beautiful fires. They should never be fired in a
room, however, and always away from a dwelling.

Crimson Fire.
The principal ingredient in this is nitrate of strontium, of which 40
parts are taken, with 13 of sulphur, 15 of chlorate of potass, 4 of
sulphuret of antimony, and 2 of lamp-black. These, as all the
ingredients for the other fires, should be rubbed in a ladle, and they
may be used in a ladle or iron dish set on the ground.

Blue Fire.
The ingredients of blue fire are 20 parts; 12 of niter, 4 of sulphur, 2 of
sulphuret of antimony, and 2 of lamp-black.

Green Fire.
The ingredients for green fire are in 54 parts; 42 of nitrate of barytes,
8 of sulphur, 3 of chlorate of potass, and 1 of lamp-black.

Purple Fire.
The best recipe for purple fire is of 60 parts; 25 of niter, 25 of nitrate
of strontium, 7 of sulphur, 2 of realgor, and 1 of lamp-black.

White Fire.
The best and purest white fire is made of 24 parts of niter, 7 of
sulphur, 2 of red arsenic, and one of lamp-black.

Spur Fire.
9 parts of niter, 4 of sulphur, and 3 of lamp-black, well rubbed
together.

Blue Lights.
These are made of 4 parts of sulphur, 2 of niter, and 1 of powder,
and are rammed into squib-cases the contrary way.

Port or Wildfires.
Saltpeter 4 parts, meal powder 6 parts, and sulphur 3 parts. The
composition to be moistened with linseed-oil.

Slow Fire for Wheels.

Saltpeter 4 parts, sulphur 2 parts, and meal powder 2 parts.

Dead Fire for Wheels.

Saltpeter 5 parts, sulphur 1 part, lapis calaminaris 1 part, and
antimony 1 part.
 Cautions.
Such are the principles and methods by which fireworks may be
made; but we would advise our young friends to be very cautious,
and never to attempt making any fireworks by candlelight; always to
select some outhouse for their operations; to see that no iron or steel
implements are about the place in which their fireworks are being
manufactured, or they may go off before they wish it; to use wooden
or brass implements in the bruising, grinding, and sifting of their
mixtures; and never to bring the fireworks, or any of their ingredients,
into the dwelling-house, or they may suddenly receive a
“Heavy blow and great discouragement.”

To Make an Illuminated Spiral Wheel.

Procure a circular horizontal wheel two feet in diameter with a hole
quite through the nave, then take four thin pieces of deal three feet
long each, and three-quarters of an inch broad each. One end of
each of these pieces is to be nailed to the felloe of the wheel at an
equal distance from one another, and the other end nailed to a block
with a hole in its bottom, which must be perpendicular with that in the
block of the wheel, but not so large. The wheel being thus made, a
hoop planed down very thin must be nailed to the felloe of the wheel,
and wound round the four sticks in a spiral line from the wheel to the
block at the top; on the top of this block a case of Chinese fire must
be fixed, and on the wheel any number of cases, which must incline
downwards and burn two at a time. The axis of the wheel must be a
little longer than the cone, and made very smooth at the top, on
which the upper block is to turn and the whole weight of the wheel to
rest.

[THE END.]
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